This month, I’m looking back at movies and tv shows to rediscover songs that graced the screen. The scenes and the music are inseparable. They’re engrained in our heads and our hearts. And they’re proof that the best music we have doesn’t exist in isolation. It attaches itself to a moment or an experience. #SceneSongs
Movie: The Big Lebowski
One of my all-time favorite movies, The Big Lebowski features a strong, diverse set of songs on its soundtrack — from a Gypsy Kings cover to a CCR staple. But no other song on the soundtrack embodies the film and The Dude more than “The Man in Me”. The song a director picks for an opening scene can sometimes make or break a film. It’s the mood setter. And the Coen brothers nailed it. There was no better song to kick off The Big Lebowski and top it off with the dream scene than with Bob Dylan’s “The Man in Me”.
Not your typical Dylan anthem, it felt like it was written and performed specifically for The Dude — a melodious homage to the main character. Beyond the opening scene inside Ralph’s Supermarket, it’s used again in the famed hallucination scene — and apparently Jeff Bridges has sung it and led audience participation at Lebowski Fest. It’s not just widely loved, it’s beloved. “The Man In Me” is The Dude put to music – with its “la la las” and stoner organ hook, endearing us to the main character from the very opening scene.
“STORM CLOUDS ARE RAGING ALL AROUND MY DOOR. I THINK TO MYSELF I MIGHT NOT TAKE IT ANYMORE. TAKE A WOMAN LIKE YOUR KIND TO FIND THE MAN IN ME.”